Lily's Two Families
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: Lily comes down with the wizard's flu in her first Hogwarts year and her Head of House has to look after her. Upon request of Minerva McGonagall 62 in response to the writing contest on my newsgroup page. AU, sick!Lily


**Lily's Two Families**

_For Minerva McGonagall 62 on her request after participating in the writing contest on my newsgroup page! Please enjoy!_

* * *

Lily went to bed, feeling much too excited to sleep. She exchanged a few words with her friend Alice, before her regular breathing told her that Alice had drifted off to sleep. '_Tomorrow I'm going home for the first time since I came to Hogwarts. What will Mum and Dad say? I've so much to tell them. And I hope that Petunia will behave herself_,' she thought, not especially thrilled to meeting her sister.

Only slowly sleep overcame the small girl and it didn't long last, before she woke up again by a sharp pain in her throat. '_Oh no_,' she groaned inwardly. '_I just hope I didn't catch a cold right at the beginning of the holidays_.' Nevertheless, she couldn't prevent her whole body from getting sore, and by the time her roommates got up, she felt outright ill and was shivering violently, feeling burning hot and icy cold at the same time. When she tried to sit up, she was overcome by dizziness that forced her to lie down again quickly.

"Lily, it's time to get up," Lily suddenly heard Alice's voice, and her friend stepped over to her bedside in surprise since normally Lily was the first to get up and wake up all the others.

"I can't. I feel too dizzy," Lily croaked painfully, giving her friend a horrified look from glassy eyes.

"Are you ill, Lily?" Alice enquired in an equally terrified voice and gently felt her friend's forehead. "You're burning up. I'm going to get Madam Pomfrey. Maybe she can fix you quickly, before we have to board the train."

Alice dashed through the still deserted common room and down the stairs to the hospital wing only to find a note at the door stating that Madam Pomfrey was at St. Mungo's until Christmas Eve and anyone, who might need her, should contact their Head of House.

"Professor, you have to come quickly. Lily is ill," Alice breathed when Professor McGonagall opened the door to her office.

"Lily is ill?" the teacher repeated worriedly. "What's wrong with her?" she asked, quickly grabbing a Muggle thermometer and a phial of Pepper-up potion from her drawer, before she hurried after her student to the first year girls' dormitory.

"Everyone, please get ready quickly and leave the room, so that you won't come down with whatever Lily has caught at home," she instructed the girls and sat down on the edge of Lily's bed. Minerva only had to throw a glance at the girl's half open green eyes that were feverishly glazed over and her deeply flushed cheeks to know that the Pepper-up potion wouldn't be able to help her student at all.

"Hello Lily," she said softly. "Are you feeling sick?"

Lily slowly moved her aching eyes just a little bit in Minerva's direction, before recognition struck when she noticed her Head of House being there.

"I don't feel well, Professor," she whispered, reaching out with her hand to the professor's cool hand that was resting on her other arm. '_I won't be able to go home today, but I don't care anymore. I just don't want to die. I've never felt so bad in my whole life_,' Lily mused, hardly noticing that the professor stuck a thermometer into her mouth and spoke to her in a soft voice.

Only when the teacher laid her cool hand to her forehead to gently push an errand strand of hair away, she noticed that it felt incredibly good and tried to lean into the cool touch.

"Gee goo," she mumbled around the thermometer, closing her achy eyes.

"40.2," Minerva read horrified. "Lily, I'm afraid you have the wizard's flu or something. I'm going to call Madam Pomfrey back from St. Mungo's to check on you. However, you won't be able to go home today. You're very ill. I will contact your parents as soon as we know what it is and when you'll be able to return home."

"Kay," Lily mumbled hoarsely, weakly pressing a hand against her aching head.

"Hold on, Lily, I'll be back in the blink of an eye," Minerva said soothingly and adjusted a cool cloth on the girl's burning forehead, causing her student to sigh in comfort at the cool touch, before she hurried to the fireplace in the common room.

HP HEALER POMFREY HP

A few minutes later, Lily noticed a tingly sensation run over her sore body and slightly opened her eyes to see Madam Pomfrey standing next to her bed waving her wand over her. '_Thank God; she'll make me feel better soon_,' she mused in relief.

"Good diagnostic Minnie, you were right about the wizard's flu," Poppy finally stated and pulled two phials out of her robe pocket. She gently pulled Lily slightly up into a half sitting position and pressed the first phial against her lips, ordering her softly, "Drink it all please."

Lily obeyed and immediately felt the effects of the potion that soothed her whole body immensely. "Now the fever reducer," Poppy commanded, and Lily downed the next potion, feeling her burning body cool down just a little bit.

The Mediwitch gently helped her lie down again and said, "You'll have to stay in bed for at least three days, perhaps even a week. Thursday next week is the earliest I can let you go home. Please stay in bed and do exactly as Professor McGonagall tells you. I'll come and check on you once a day during the next two days, while I'm at St. Mungo's."

"Thank you Madam Pomfrey," Lily whispered gratefully, already drifting off to sleep.

"I suggest that you take her with you to your guest room," Poppy told Minerva, sliding a magical wrist band over Lily's left hand that turned into a red colour after a few seconds. "Please watch her temperature. If the wrist band turns pink, you'll have to transfigure her bed into a bathtub."

Fortunately, the potions kicked in quickly and Lily's condition improved steadily. Whenever she woke up, he professor was at her side, bathing her flushed face and speaking to her in a soft voice.

On the third morning in the teacher's guest quarters, Minerva looked at the wrist band that turned from orange to yellow as soon as Lily gulped down her potions, and sighed.

"You're not well enough to get up yet, but do you feel up to spending some time on the sofa in the living room?" she asked softly. "It's Christmas morning, and some of my colleagues will come to have breakfast here with us."

"All right," Lily agreed, feeling much better than the day before. "Are you sure that I won't be in your way, Professor?" she asked hesitantly.

McGonagall laughed. "No Lily, they're coming here, because I told them that I didn't want to leave you alone, and since you're living here with me at the moment, of course you're going to have breakfast with us, provided that you feel well enough. Hagrid even brought a Christmas tree for us, which he normally doesn't do just for me."

Lily scrambled out of her bed and walked over to the living room, where she saw a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, glad that the professor steadied her since she still felt very weak. She lay down on the sofa in relief and drifted off into an exhausted slumber, leaving the professor to think that her condition was still worse than she admitted.

By the time Lily woke up, apart from Professor McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey, Madam Hooch, Professor Sprout, and the Headmaster were sitting around the table. Lily blushed deeply and hurried to sit up, causing Minerva to put an arm around her shoulders and ask gently, "Feeling better now?"

"Yes," Lily whispered shyly and took a few sips of pumpkin juice from a glass that Madam Pomfrey handed her. '_Feels good_,' she thought gratefully, greedily drinking a bit more.

"Here, Ms. Evans; these scones are delicious," Professor Dumbledore said gently, but Lily politely refused, not feeling hungry at all.

"Well then, shall we look if there are presents for us?" Madam Hooch efficiently changed the topic, noticing that Lily didn't feel comfortable with all the attention that was concentrated on her.

Lily received many presents, astonished that her family had managed to get her presents to Hogwarts. '_Maybe they gave them to the owl that Professor McGonagall used to send my presents_,' she mused, while she curiously opened a present that her teacher handed her, finding her own copy of the book '_Hogwarts: A History_' inside.

"Thanks a lot, Professor," she croaked happily, looking unbelieving at the book, which she had always wanted to have since she had set a foot into Hogwarts the first time.

Madam Pomfrey was the last to leave and gave Lily a thorough check-up as soon as the others were gone. "You still need to stay in bed or lie here on the sofa for at least two more days," she said sternly. "Only when your fever is completely gone you may return home. Minerva, I don't want her to spend a whole day in the Hogwarts Express though. Can you apparate her home then?"

"That's what I intended to do anyway," Minerva replied gently, throwing the girl a fond look.

"All right. As you know, I'm going to visit my family for the rest of the week. Minerva, please contact me, if you need me."

"Thank you, Madam Pomfrey, and have a nice holiday," Lily said gratefully, while Minerva pulled her friend into a light embrace.

"Take care Poppy, and have a good time. I hope we won't have to call you back here."

HP HEALER POMFREY HP

Lily spent the next three days resting on the sofa in the living room watching her teacher grade tests and essays on the other side of the table. Whenever Lily felt well enough, they spoke about several questions that bothered Lily, and Minerva taught her many things about the magical world, which Lily as a Muggle born couldn't know. "Thank you, Professor; during these three days I learned more than I learn here at the school in a whole week," Lily said gratefully when Minerva gently tucked her in on Friday evening. '_It was nice to stay here with McGonagall_,' she mused, '_nearly as if I had a family here as well_.'

"Are you looking forward to going home?" Minerva asked gently, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Lily sighed. "Yes, well, I miss my mother, but frankly speaking I didn't miss my sister so far. She seems to be very jealous, because I'm a witch and she isn't, and from the day, on which I knew that I was a witch, she wasn't nice to me anymore. But I look forward to seeing Mum."

"Since when did you know that you're a witch, Lily? Since you received your Hogwarts letter?"

"No." Lily slightly shook her head. "Severus told me when we were small. We always played together on the playground. At first I was very upset but I soon realized that he was right even if Petunia didn't accept it and hated Severus for it. He's still my best friend. It's just sad that he is in a different House and we can't openly be best friends."

Minerva sighed. "I'm sorry, Lily; I'd like the Houses to get along better, but it seems to be difficult. Maybe you and Severus can try to force Gryffindor and Slytherin to cooperate a bit."

"We'll try, but it's difficult, especially with people like James Potter and Sirius Black in Gryffindor," Lily said thoughtfully.

"All right then Lily, try to sleep quickly, so that your condition doesn't get worse again and I'll be able to take you home tomorrow," Minerva said gently, before she stood up and went to bed herself, feeling incredibly tired that evening.

HP HEALER POMFREY HP

After a quiet breakfast in the morning, during which both of them were so occupied with their own thoughts that they didn't notice that the other didn't eat anything either, Minerva and Lily slowly headed down to the entrance hall. However, half way down the road to Hogsmeade, Minerva all of a sudden began to shiver vehemently and reached for Lily, leaning heavily onto her arm.

"What's wrong, Professor?" Lily asked in concern, noticing that her teacher's face had turned completely white, while her cheeks were flushed in a dark red tone, and she had dark rings under her eyes. Sweat was building on the teacher's forehead, beginning to drip down from her temples. Lily quickly extended a hand to feel Minerva's forehead and gasped.

"Professor, you're burning up," she said horrified. "You caught the flu from me."

"I'm afraid so," Minerva replied weakly. "I hoped I'd manage to take you home before going back to bed, but I'm too dizzy."

Lily gently put an arm around the teacher's back. "Let's get you back home, Professor. I'm going to stay with you until you're back to health." She slowly led the teacher back to her quarters and ushered her into bed, glad that the teacher was able to transfigure her clothing into pyjamas, because she didn't know the spell.

She hurried into the guest room and retrieved two phials from the shelf as well as the thermometer, which she forced into the professor's mouth, while she gently wiped her sweaty face. After Minerva had taken her potions, she slightly relaxed and gave Lily a weary look.

"Lily, you can go home. I'll be fine, and I'm sure your mother will be missing you."

"She will miss me, but I'm needed here now. Since Gryffindor is my family here at Hogwarts, you're my mother here, aren't you? And since you're ill, I have to look after you just like you did for me. I'll send my parents an owl right away," Lily replied firmly, adjusting a cool cloth on the professor's hot forehead. '_And to Severus too_,' she added in her thoughts.

"Now try to sleep for a while, Professor. I'll be here," she said softly, gently sliding the wrist band over the teacher's hand, watching as it turned red, while Minerva drifted off to sleep, before she engrossed herself in writing her letters to her parents and to her best friend.

**The End**

* * *

_I'm not a native speaker of English; please excuse my mistakes or tell me, so that I can correct them._

_All recognizable characters belong to __Mrs. Rowling__, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._


End file.
